In the spirit of spending time together, we decided to take Bill on a surprise field trip to celebrate his birthday. Walker was our driver and Bill rode shotgun. The hitch was that no one but me knew where we were going and I was sitting in the backseat! Walker navigated purely with an address and was careful not to disclose the name of the city.
Thanks to Amber, I discovered Casey, Illinois, a small town that put itself on the map with an ingenious idea. A resident there wanted to boost tourism and give people a reason to stop in a small, sleepy town. He devised a plan to build the world’s largest wind chimes. The idea grew and now the town is home to eight Guinness Book of World Record items and a number of other things not big enough to be world record holders but still pretty cool. I found a lot of interesting information, maps and media links aggregated here. Since it was only a few hours from home, it made for a great day trip.
The final directions led us through small streets. We were just pulling into Casey (pronounce KAY zee) when Bill looked up and exclaimed, “Wow! That’s a BIG chair!” Indeed it was. We parked on the main drag and started exploring. Many of the attractions were right near the rocking chair or a short walk from there but others were better discovered by car. Here are some we saw:
World’s largest wind chimes
World’s largest wooden shoes/clogs
World’s largest mailbox that you enter and actually mail letters in
World’s largest knitting needles and crochet hook that were indeed used for a project
World’s largest golf tee
and world’s largest pitchfork.
Then there were the big things, like the big yardstick
The big spinning top
The minion made from a recycled tank
The big wooden token
The big rocking horse was painted with a unique finish that changes the horse’s appearance depending on light and angle.
The big bird cage had with a swing that really did swing!
This number 2 pencil bore a bible verse from Proverbs, and in fact, all of the items had inscriptions.
There are a number of other items in the works as the town hopes to grow the collection of world’s record and big items such as this golf club.
All in all, Casey was a delightful discovery and I would love to return to see more big things.
Amber also suggested a sight for our return home. This one was a little trickier because GPS kept cutting in and out and I was not prepared with a map on my phone. Traveling with blind faith, we found the Mug Tree on Highway 49 about a mile south of Yale, Illinois. According to a Roadside America, it was established in September 2003. It holds hundreds of mugs which people can trade or they can just leave their own. There is also a mailbox with a guest book to log your visit.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring any mugs with us but that didn’t detract from the charm of the experience. On our way home, we stopped in Vincennes for Italian food making it quite a full day.
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